The ONS said: "The gap between the local areas with the highest and lowest life expectancy was wider for males than for females but there was no significant change in this inequality between 2005-07 and 2009-11.”

Nine of the 10 local authorities where men lived longest are in the South, including South Cambridgeshire, Guildford in Surrey and New Forest in Hampshire.

By comparison, nine of the 10 areas where men had the lowest life expectancy were in the North. They include 74.1 years in Manchester, 75.6 years in Salford and Burnley and 75.7 in Blackburn and Liverpool.

For baby girls, life expectancy is lowest in Manchester, where women can expect to live for 79.3 years, and highest in East Dorset where their life expectancy at birth is 86.4 years.

In some areas, life expectancy has fallen. In Scarborough, in North Yorkshire, baby boys are likely to live until they are 77.9, a fall from 78.3 between 2008-2010.

In others, it has increased significantly. For baby boys, the greatest improvement has been in Sedgemoor, Somerset, where life expectancy at birth has risen from 78.7 to 79.9.

The ONS said that the regional divide is being accentuated by healthy people choosing to move to the South.

The statistics are the so-called "life expectancy at birth" figures, which show how long people born in specific years can expect to live.